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Three days later I found myself back in the very last place I expected to be, but I had come full circle, finding myself at the very beginning! I swear, but I was starting to question the level of expertise Amelia had at evading capture or I was asking myself if I had lost my touch for hunting?
Either way, I was pissed about being back here but there was nothing more to be done. She had indeed become a fucking ghost and I was hoping that something new would come to light after I had delivered Dom’s Ferrari back to him. Meaning that yet a-fucking-gain I was walking inside of Dom’s office with fuck all to go on.
“Still nothing?” he asked in that same hopeful tone he always had whenever we spoke, as I had kept my word and continued to keep him in the know. I threw his keys at him and snapped,
“What do you fucking think!”
“Gods, what is she thinking?” he replied with a disappointed shake of his head.
“I can fully imagine exactly what she is thinking, Dom, and other than my head being on the end of a fucking spike at the gates of Afterlife, then I don’t see your daughter returning home any time soon,” I said kicking out the chair and gripping the back of it, feeling the wood soften under the grip I had on it.
“I take it you found the Dodge then?” he asked making me snarl at the fucking memory.
“Oh yeah, I found it alright,” I said before releasing my death grip and deflating into the chair opposite his desk, now scrubbing a hand down my face with my own frustrations. Then, with my elbow to the armrest, I continued to rub my brow as if it would help alleviate the building pressure there.
“And?” His question caused me to take pause and raise the hand from my forehead in a gesture that said it all...I was pissed off.
“And... as suspected she sold it, that’s what...”
“I get you’re obviously not used to getting your ass handed to you when it comes to your intended target evading capture, but you’ve got to give me more than that!” Dom complained, making me growl at his words before releasing my anger on a sigh, knowing that he was right. I told him that I would keep him informed and I needed to remember that my own frustrations and worries were mirrored in her father’s gaze.
“I had the Dodge traced and found it at a dealers in New Jersey.” He raised a brow and commented,
“That close to New York?”
“Yeah, which means that she planned for me to find the chop shop and drove for as long as she thought was safe to do so before selling it.”
“She didn’t do a trade?” he asked making me shake my head, feeling fucking tired and old at that!
“No, they paid her cash, then called her a cab.” Dom swore in Persian on a hiss and shook his own head, commenting,
“That girl is too smart for her own good.”
“Yes, and the only comfort both you and I will get out of how intelligent she is, is that if I can’t fucking find her then neither can the witch. But be sure, Dom, that comfort I find is fucking slim at best!” I snarled angrily with a clenched fist finding the desk to hammer down against.
“As it is with me...I take it you tracked the cab?”
“Yes, but little good it did me as it took her to Newark bus station,” I told him remembering turning up there and being forced to watch my girl on a security screen as she bought her ticket and disappeared up the steps inside some Greyhound coach.
“So that’s it... she’s just gone?!” he shouted, now getting the full depth of my frustrations.
“Using the security footage, I was able to discover that she bought a ticket to Columbia, South Carolina,” I told him knowing that it was pointless considering the outcome but doing so all the same.
“And?”
“And I had my people waiting for her there with instructions to contain her until I arrived but when the coach pulled into the station, she wasn’t on it. We then discovered that a woman by her description got off at one of the stops in Winston Salem, North Carolina and never returned. After that the trail ran cold because the only camera footage, we have is of her walking away on foot. Where it is then believed she used a payphone to call another cab company to take her somewhere. But then she also could have caught another bus to somewhere else or bought a fucking car for all we know!” I added this last part with a growl of words, hating that I didn’t fucking know!
“I take it you’re having all bus stations monitored?”
“I am, but the challenge set against us is the small town stops that have no security footage, so there is little hope to track her movements, as it seems her plan is to continue this pattern of bus hopping until she gets to wherever it is she is going.”
“And I take it there is still no signs of her trying to leave the country?” he asked once I had finished explaining the bus situation.
“No, her new passport has been flagged at all airports, but I think we can safely assume that if she is being this cautious when simply using the bus service, then she will make sure that she stays away from planes.”
“Then what do we assume her next step to be, for she will have to settle at some point?” he asked making me release a sigh, then rubbing the back of my neck I told him,
“I agree, as at the very least she can’t leave the country, so all that is left is for us to do is to be ready when she does settle, as gaining another ID won’t be easy...not without her contacts.”
“Ah yes, I remember meeting this Wendy,” he said with a shake of his head as if the memory was an amusing one.
“Dante is having her watched and her calls are also being monitored, but I would be surprised if Amelia took the chance of involving her again,” I said, knowing that the only reason she did so in the first place was that she knew it would take us the time she needed to get away, before we were able to start piecing all her steps together.
But the fact that she sold the car did now present a bigger problem for she had more money and enough to settle down somewhere as the Dodge hadn’t been cheap. Meaning that it could be weeks before she slipped up again. Which was why I made the decision to keep invading her dreams until one of two things happened, she either slipped up and showed me something she didn’t realise would lead me to her, or she became so strong at blocking me out that my chances of doing so again would become too limited.
Naturally, I was hoping for the first.
“So, what you’re basically saying is that we have little choice but to wait, is that it?” His tone said it all.
“Hey, I don’t fucking like it any more than you do, but if you have any better plans then please, fucking share away, Dom,” I snapped making him release a heavy weighted sigh, a sound I had become used to hearing.
“Truth is, every way I look at this and trust me when I say, Dom, I have spent a long fucking time looking at this, but with every idea I have it is as if she is ten steps ahead of me and I just don’t know how to get ahead...not without knowing her intended destination.”
“And you have entered her Void again?” he asked, surprising me enough to show it.
“I am no fool, Luc, you may not have wanted to admit it to Keira how you found her hotel, but you’re a fool if you think I haven’t already tried myself.” I raised a brow and asked a simple,
“And?
“And nothing! She is like her mother, a fucking wall the size of that monstrosity that surrounds Lucifer’s palace. Besides, I am not the master of her will here, you are.” I released a low growl of irritation before deciding to be honest with him, seeing as we were alone,
“I will admit, doing so isn’t easy and I fear if she grows any stronger then I won’t be able to access her mind at all.” His eyes widened in surprise but thankfully he chose not to comment on what any King would feel was a weakness, which was why admitting such wasn’t easy. He knew this, which is why he merely nodded for me to continue.
“But I will continue to try until I find something as, unfortunately, for the moment, it is all we have left to go on.” And this was true. Which was the only thing that prevented me from giving in to the rage I felt, one that grew from feeling both useless and beaten. But then with nothing left to go on, I was forced with no other choice but to put all my hopes of finding her in that of her own stubborn mind. One that I noticed lately had refused to sleep, no doubt in hopes of preventing me from gaining access once more.
I had been furious with her once realising this, but over the last few days every time I had tried, I had found no way of entering her Void. Meaning that if there were no cracks in her mental walls, then her mind was not at peace and she was not sleeping. Making me wonder when it was that she was getting rest?
Of course, I couldn’t spend all of my time focusing on her mind for I would be no use to anyone by spending all my energy this way. And honestly, I wasn’t even sure if I could manage it or not, for it wasn’t as if I had ever tried.
No, my guess was that she was simply picking random times of the day to power nap, in hopes that I wouldn’t have the time to break into her mind and take charge. But then, there was only so long she could keep this up. As she was mortal and unlike my own kind, as we didn’t need even a quarter the amount of sleep they did.
Naturally, this also made me worry, especially if she had bought a car and was hoping to drive it to wherever it was she was hoping to get to. However, I thought it prudent for the time being to keep this from Dom, as he had enough on his hands to worry about And besides, I had to admit that having him on my side was easier and I worried that he would ask me to stop trying to discover her whereabouts through her Void if he knew it could offer potential risks.
No, only I would make that call and for now, I thought finding her was more important the sleep deprivation. Besides, I was also hoping that she was smart enough to know that her health came first.
So this was why I changed the subject and I did this by asking,
“Tell me about the situation with the rogues.”
After this conversation it was unfortunately another six days later that any new information came in and during this time I had gone from difficult to murderous. I had travelled to seven different states running after leads that never amounted to anything but lost time and pointless effort in the name of hope. And in all of that time the only pieces of information that had been of little value, had been four different cabs, three more buses and not even a single night in a hotel, motel or even some small- town bed and breakfast.
I had tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to enter her Void and the most I had seen was her sat asleep in a Greyhound seat on some coach. One I could only discover was on its way to Jacksonville, Florida. But naturally, when I had arrived there and was waiting for her, she had been a no show. Just like all the other stops along the planned route I had placed my people. Which meant that she had become wise to what I was doing and decided to change tactics.
I knew this after one witness’ account said that a woman asked the bus driver to pull over in the next town, even though it was unplanned, because she wasn’t feeling well. Naturally she was convincing enough for him to do this. So, she got off the bus and was last seen crossing the street and disappearing inside a coffee shop. It was also said that she looked exhausted, which meant that since then, I hadn’t tried to access her mind again. This was after seeing for myself the damage I was doing. As she no doubt woke in panic, desperate to get off the bus and knowing her, hadn’t slept since.
To say that I was worried about her was a fucking huge understatement and I was therefore forced to give it some time. This was in hopes of at least letting her get to where it was she was determined to travel to. And the hardest part was that I couldn’t be sure that she even had a plan to speak of! It just all seemed so random but for all any of us knew, Pip had been right from the start, that she could have just been closing her eyes and sticking her finger on a map.
However, after the mention of Jacksonville, then she was singing a slightly less random tune and one more, should we say...out there.
“Why Florida, what is she planning, a trip to Disney World, or hey, maybe a nice relaxing cruise?” To which both me and Dom commented that it was hardly likely, especially seeing as Amelia got seasick and hated boats.
Of course, before this Dom hadn’t exactly been impressed to discover just how many of his own family knew of mine and Amelia’s relationship long before he did. A list that it would seem looked longer than those who didn’t know. Making Pip comment at the time cryptically,
“Hey, it’s starting to feel like that Friends episode, you know the one where everyone knows about Monica and Chandler, but Ross and it all started with Joey, only Dom is Ross and Keira you’re Joey... only without the whole ‘how you doin’ thing going on...what?” Everyone in the room had looked at her in the usual, questioning way. With the exception of Keira, as her giggle told us that she knew exactly what this had obviously been in reference to.
Needless to say, that Dom didn’t exactly take kindly to this. Especially not when finding out that that not only his own son knew, but that of his brother as well. In fact, the only one who seemed not to know was Sophia, who at that point, received a harsh and questioning look from Dom making her snap,
“Don’t look at me like that, I am as pissed off as you for being the only one other than you in this family who didn’t know! And besides, I think we are all missing the biggest plot hole here!”
“And that is?” Dom snapped,
“How the Hades in Hell did Pip keep it a secret all this time!”
“Hey! I will have you know...oh, what am I saying, she’s right, I have no clue either,” Pip admitted with a shrug of her shoulders, looking to Adam and mouthing another, ‘no clue, do you?’
But despite this personal set back against Dom, his main focus had remained on aiding me in trying to find his daughter. However, after exhausting every mortal resource we both had, along with trying to free up that of supernatural means also, it still gave us nothing. Because it had to be said that the capturing of the rogues had also taken a lot of our combined manpower and wasn’t a problem either of us, as Kings, could simply ignore until Amelia had been found.
Which meant that in total I had been without my Chosen One for a total of eleven days and the knowledge of such was taking its toll in a way that it had me questioning how I had ever been able to function without her before. Before I had finally allowed myself to claim her.
But since then I knew what it was to have her in my life and not just as a spectator of her life from afar. I had slept with her in my arms. I knew the touch of her face, the smile in her eyes and the comforting weight of her body next to mine. I had thought it would have been the absence of her blood, of her essence or even the shallower reason of missing the sexual gratification claiming her brought me. But then the most surprising revelation was it was the little things that I found myself missing the most.
Her laugh, the way she bit her fingertips, the push of her glasses when deep in thought. It was her witty humour or our lively verbal battles. It was watching her cook and boasting at how masterful it was. The way she would become animated when explaining something she was obviously passionate about, like explaining storylines to things she wanted me to watch. And during these times, the way she unknowingly would nod or smile at the TV when she agreed or sweetly found something touching on the screen.
It was all of these things that finally made me understand the full depth of my love for her. For it wasn’t the things that I would have believed most important in claiming a Chosen One. Like the way she ignited for me in the bedroom, or the addictive taste of her blood, a flavour granted by the Gods and labelled my own personal flavour. It was all the things I never would have believed could be important to me.
And Gods, I missed every single fucking one of them and I wanted them back!
I wanted her back.
And I was starting to believe that she wouldn’t be going through the same longing as I was. Well, that was until on the twelfth day, I finally received word and this time it wasn’t from one of my contacts.
No, it was from her.
Her drunken phone call.